AOL’s $1.1 Billion Deal with Microsoft

Thrilling patent-law news! AOL, parent company of the Huffington Post and cause of most middle-school-specific social ills (2001–2003), will sell and license $1.1 billion worth of patents to fellow tech behemoth Microsoft. According to The New York Times, the sale is the latest development in “an arms race within the technology industry over intellectual property.” But which patents are affected? This is the exciting part: “AOL hasn’t said exactly what the patents cover,” The Wall Street Journal reports, “but the company noted that its remaining patents and patent applications include advertising, search, content generation, social networking and mapping technology.”

The Huffington Post Divorce vertical has not yet reported on whether the licensed patents will spend every other weekend with Microsoft (plus holidays) and weekdays with AOL, or if the patents prefer to live with AOL for nine months and spend the summer at Microsoft’s Hamptons house.